February 2023 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

Meeting, unusually, on the first Saturday of February, the brave stalwarts of the Forth and Clyde Area Group met at our usual haunt of at the Headquarters of the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers at Almondale near Livingston. The Press Officer was unable to make an appearance due to other commitments and so a game of “not me” was played to find who would pen the piece on this meeting.

After several long minutes of silence and examination of the floor as we studiously avoided eye contact, it came to light that I, this months humble reporter, would be missing next month’s meeting as I’m travelling to the far and distant land of Bury, to ride behind Flying Scotsman as she runs on the East Lancashire Railway. The general consensus of the room that this is a dirty LNER locomotive, vastly inferior to the great mechanical marvels of Sir William Stanier, and as penance I would have to take on the mantle of the blog for this month*.

 

In attendance this month were Alisdair, Alastair, Alistair, Jim, James, Simon and I, your willing volunteer, Martin. There was a great deal of modelling ongoing, with the Group Layout, an engine shed for taking to exhibitions, with personal projects studiously being worked on and on show:

After lunch, James led a talk on layout wiring.

He showed a method of keeping it simple that has worked for him on his own layout and several group layouts he has worked on. The overall premise was to plan in the first instance with just plain line – he reiterated the advice given in the "Track" book of two droppers of each polarity per section of track.

James showed, using the diagram enclosed with an Easitrac B6 turnout (now out of production) his view on how to wire these, with isolation gaps and bonding rails together. There was some discussion on the position of these gaps in Easitrac vs. other building options (the milled common crossing on Easitrac provides convenient gapping at the V whereas other methods require a little more thought).

His advice was that DC and DCC can be wired in roughly the same way – with the addition of isolation switches if required, in the DC world.

Keeping it simple and keeping notes was vital to help with fault finding – you might remember it at the time, but in the future? “If you write it down, you’ll never need to refer to it again” he commented with the inverse unsaid but alarmingly true!

He was a fierce opponent of chocolate block connectors as they can mangle wire that is put in and out repeatedly, however did acquiesce later that the use of bootlace ferrules (a set with a crimper is ~£18 on eBay) neatens this up. Others did discuss alternatives, including soldering the ends of wires before using choc-blocs but James outwardly cringed at this too… He also said he wasn’t a huge fan of the D-type connectors, as some of the manufacturing methods can leave these vulnerable to damage when attaching your own wires.

James had provided a scan of the Squires catalogue and the switches listed there, then over the next several slides, demystified the differences. The details of single and double pole, single and double throw and the various applications for these on a model railway was covered with schematic diagrams which showed potential applications.

All-in-all, from my point of view, a good introduction to layout wiring – for followers of my progress, I’m not quire at this stage of the building process, but it’s on the near horizon. I’ve often struggled here and unnecessarily overcomplicated things, but this provides a useful grounding.

We returned to individual projects after the talk.

Simon was working on the Group Layout – he was soldering droppers and laying turnouts. He had brought along a section of his Glenfinnan station throat, and dry fitted a couple of servos to the turnout operating units.

Jim had brought along his Caledonian Railways 65’ First and Brake Thirds – now complete with lettering and CR crests, but awaiting roofs – these are being 3D printed and are on their second or third iteration due to an issue with the CAD. I’ve been following Jim’s build on RMWeb (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/174408-cr-65ft-first-and-matching-brake-3rds/page/2/#comment-5072588) as I have a passing interest in the Caley, but seeing the detail he’s achieved in real life was incredible(!).

Jim was also working on the buffer stops for the Group layout. After someone (who might have been me…) bought the last of the CR Heavy stops from Shop 1 – Jim decided to build his own from scratch using rail and some home made jigs. Again, sorry Jim…

The jigs, as described on RMWeb (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/65499-whats-on-your-2mm-work-bench/page/164/#comment-5079816) are made from layers of card. The results are shown in the picture alongside.

Jim and Simon spent some time marking the positions of the buffer stops to the layout – so that Simon doesn’t lay extra track which then needs taken back up.

Alisdair, after some prodding, confessed to working on a GWR prototype, of Pen Mill bridge for Laurie Adam’s Yeovil layout. There were lots of bits of plasticard on the bench, with very precise incisions in them which must mean something to Alisdair, if no-one else! The confession that he was working on a GWR prototype elicited a ne’er before heard confession from Jim, that he had a test etch of an NBR wagon(!) for Miles, who wasn’t present.

Alisdair had also brought along his Push/Pull set to go with his ex-NBR class M (LNER C15) "Yorkie" tank. These are modified Worsley Works etches of Gresley non-corridor stock. He also spent sometime with a large tape measure taking measurements in a wee book that he assures us is for the Scottish Mini Meet advertised in the most recent 2FS Newsletter

NBR, LNER and GWR – and I was getting stick for visiting Flying Scotsman! Must be Chairman's privilege!

On the subject of the NBR/LNER, Alastair was working on CAD for a N14/15 tank. His intention, with access to machine tools, is to produce a milled chassis for weight and marry this to a self-produced 3D Printed body. As previously reported, Alistair has been working on 3D printing some NBR mineral wagons for his intended layout of South Queensferry – he reported progress on these, now printing the W-irons and base as a single piece and the sides as single pieces and gluing it all together, however, he brought none along so we have to settle for an action shot…

Staying with the Al’s, Alistair was working on his plan for a layout. He has a beautiful pencil drawn plan heavily inspired by Leith Citadel with a single platform, a run around loop and goods yard. His plan (which I neglected to get a photo of, but caught the great ma whilst imbibing sustenance and reading a S4 Society Journal (eh?)) shows what looks like a double track access to the station, but is, instead, a single track access with an outgoing industrial branch so that wagons can be shunted in the station then drawn back and into the sprawling industry of the city (modelled off-scene).

He is planning a traverser with access to under-scenery storage roads, and found James’ talk on layout wiring most useful!

 Which segues nicely (almost like I planned it) to James. He had brought along DG couplings but by his own admission, hadn’t made much progress – although he and I did have a good chat about how to make and fit these necessary, but fiddly components. Again, I forgot to get photographs, but James had produced a jig, that doubled as a practise cassette for his shunting plank.

James is converting old Peco/Farish/Dapol freight stock to 2FS and fitting DGs for the shunting plank and found these all have different coupling heights – not so much of an issue with the big hooks of N Gauge, but problematic for 2FS – his jig allows him to sit a wagon in place then use some feeler gauges to determine the amount of packing that would be required for a level fitting.

 

 

 

Which leaves me. I took a couple of projects along and didn’t achieve much – except recharge my enthusiasm. For those who follow my own ramblings on RMWeb (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/175339-martins-2mm-musings-and-maybe-a-layout/) – excuse the shameless plug – you may have seen I found my enthusiasm waning of late, I’d hit a couple of snags, put things down and just never quite got back to them.

In the course of speaking with everyone and taking notes to put this blog together, I found solutions to a lot of the issues I was having, with offers of ideas and help. So when I got home I got the tools out and started making some more progress, putting the muffs into the frames for my ex-CR439 Class, soldering in the frame spacers and gapping the frame. Simpson springs required next, and a motor/gearing. And I need to work on the trailing bogie after mangling my first attempt. Still a long way to go, but from tiny acorns etc.

 

There will be a chance to meet the motley Forth and Clyde crew at Glasgow Model Rail Exhibition on Friday 24th to Sunday 26th February when we will be manning the 2mm Scale Association Road Show.. Come and speak to us. We rarely, if ever, bite.

I’ll have to look forwards to April for my next meeting, however, for anyone else who wishes to attend, FCAG will meet again on Saturday March 11^th at the Usual location. Work is set to continue on the Group Layout although no talk is currently scheduled, so bring a personal project!

*I actually did volunteer…